From NKAA, Notable Kentucky African Americans Database (main entry)

Dickinson, Blanch T.

(born: 1896  -  died: 1972) 

Born in Franklin, KY, Blanch Taylor Dickinson attended Bowling Green Academy and Simmons University (KY) and was later a school teacher. She was the daughter of Thomas and Laura Dickinson, according to the 1910 U.S. Federal Census. She would become a Harlem Renaissance poet. Her poetry appeared in anthologies and periodicals such as The Crisis, Chicago Defender and Louisville Leader. Her biography appeared in Opportunity, vol. 5 (July 1927), p. 213. Also in 1927, Dickinson won the Buckner Award for ""conspicuous promise"; she was living in Sewickley, PA at that time. Blanch Dickinson was the wife of Verdell Dickinson (1898-1978), he was a truck driver who was born in Trenton, KY. The couple lived on Centennial Avenue in Sewickley, PA in 1930, according to the U.S. Federal Census. By 1940, Blanch Taylor (Dickinson) was listed in the census as a widow and she was back in Simpson County, KY, living with her father Tom Taylor and her widowed aunt Carol Lockhart; Blanch Taylor (Dickinson) is listed in the 1940 Census as a school teacher. For more see Black American Writers Past and Present: a biographical and bibliographical dictionary, by Rush, Myers, & Arta; Harlem Renaissance and Beyond. Literary biographies of 100 black women writers, 1900-1945, by L. E. Roses and R. E. Randolph; and "Negroes get prizes for literary work" in the New York Times, 05/08/1927, p. 19.

Additional information provided by Gayla Coates, Archives Librarian at the Simpson County Kentucky Arhcives: Blanche Taylor Dickinson died in 1972 and is buried at Pleasant View Cemetery in Simpson County, KY.

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Cite This NKAA Entry:

“Dickinson, Blanch T.,” Notable Kentucky African Americans Database, accessed July 26, 2024, https://nkaa.uky.edu/nkaa/index.php/items/show/1023.

Last modified: 2017-07-19 17:51:27